She secretly went to Kaoshan Village once, and hid herself to observe the six brothers from afar, discovering that they were decent in conduct. After discussing it with her husband, she decided to personally propose marriage.
It happened to be a time when the second son of the Liang family was critically ill. Rumor had it that the six brothers had scraped together a large sum of silver to buy a thousand-year-old ginseng to save his life, but somehow, someone had the audacity to take the money meant for their salvation.
Without the thousand-year-old ginseng, the second son’s illness worsened, and the Liang family had already emptied their savings. She seized the opportunity to step in, bringing ten taels of silver with her, and just like that, she arranged a marriage contract between Baobao and the Liang family brothers.
According to the local customs of Dayuan, once a marriage contract was made, the fiancée and fiancé could live under one roof to foster affection. However, at that time, the mother of the six was bedridden and had not yet disappeared. If the brothers came to Daliu Village, there would be no one to care for her. Dong Feiyan decided to let Baobao live with the Liang family, and also because Baobao frequently went mad, ruining her reputation, she feared the Liang family brothers would not agree before the engagement, so she concealed some things about Baobao.
She knew this was inappropriate, no different from a marriage deception, but she was desperate and under the nun’s influence, she saw the Liang family brothers as Baobao’s life-saving straw.
Even if there was just a slim chance of survival, she had to fight for it for Baobao!
She wanted Baobao to live; that was her daughter, her Baobao, she was so young, she was only seventeen at the time, and she didn’t want to see Baobao die!
When Dong Feiyan returned to the village, she told Baobao about the arrangement, which in turn triggered an extreme reaction from Baobao.
Baobao became terrifyingly dangerous during her fits of madness, not recognizing her own family, violent to the extreme—a reality her parents and siblings knew all too well and suffered from deeply. Yet when she regained her senses, her conscience was burdened with the heaviest guilt and remorse; she greatly cherished her once-lost-and-then-returned family.
To force Baobao into submission, Dong Feiyan resorted to threatening her own life. "You must go! If you don’t, today your father, your sister, your brother, and I will die before your eyes!!"
Dong Feiyan thought she would never forget the look in Baobao’s eyes at that moment: so mournful, so helpless.
"I am already on borrowed time, a dying person. To live another day is just one less day to live. Mother, do you understand? I am very sad, I even regret why I came back?"
"Every time I go mad, every time the madness fades, and I see you all bruised and battered, those wounds on you... they truly make me very sad."
"I don’t want it to be like that, but I can’t control myself; I’m not me anymore, my body harbors an evil spirit."
"I shouldn’t have come back. Having returned, finding my relatives after a decade apart, that regained kinship... I know I am dangerous, but I am greedy, wishing in my last moments to be with my family, to watch them, one more glance, and then another!"
"Mother, you know, setting aside whether that nun truly has any ability, once I go to the Liang family, I will be a disaster, a curse, a calamity."
"I really shouldn’t have come back."
"When I first tried to run away from home, father threatened his own life to stop me."
"And now you are again holding a knife to your throat."
"I don’t dare to bet, how could I afford to? Just like that time when I thought father was only pretending, that he would never really hurt himself for my sake, but he was so resolute, stabbing himself so many times, he nearly lost his life."
"You would really go to such lengths for me, you could truly die!"
"I don’t dare to gamble, but I shouldn’t have come back, I regret it, but even with regret, I can’t leave anymore... I’m trapped..."